Student Shot Inside California High School

A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into class in a rural California high school this morning and shot one student, fired at another but missed, and then was talked into surrendering by a teacher and another staff member, officials said. The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. The teacher suffered a minor pellet wound to the head but declined treatment.

When the shots at Taft Union High School were fired, the teacher began trying to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and also engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said. A campus supervisor responding to a call of shots fired also began talking to him. "They talked him into putting the shotgun down," Youngblood said. The sheriff said that at one point the shooter told the teacher, "I don't want to shoot you," and named the person he wanted to shoot. He had about 20 shotgun rounds in his pockets. (More school shooting stories.)